Jonas, Watching some doubles players, I notice that every player prepares with the non racquet foot forward. However, when going forward to receive serve, some players will step forward the racquet foot and other players step forward with the nonracquet foot. This occurs even in top players. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these two different types of footwork? I am 15cm shorter than you, stand about 30cm behind the service line to receive serve and need to step with my racquet foot forwards.
Feet Which foot to put forward when receiving in doubles is very individual. I do both in different situations. If it´s a good serve you cannot put to much pressure on the serve because you´ll make a mistake. When your opponent serves a good serve you need to put the leg you´re standing on forward first. The other way around when your opponent doesn´t serve well you can put even more pressure on his serve by almost jumping forward with your other leg. If your opponent serves out to the widest line you need to step forward with the same leg as´the arm you hit the shuttle with. Furthermore some players like to do his own style and do it the other way around. Therefore, you have to constantly notice when you make mistakes and when you make a good servereturn using the right or the left leg. Jonas
Jonas, A thought came to me! (well I was watching some doubles on video) If you put the racquet foot forward, I would think it would be difficult to get back for the flick serve (if you were truly fooled). But if you step forwards with the non-racquet foot, it seems more straight forward to just side shuffle backwards to return a flick serve. Any thoughts on that?
